The last few years have seen an avalanche of content published via electronic media. Blogs make it very simple to voice one's opinion on virtually any subject. Publishers such as YouTube have amassed millions of clips made by amateurs, from teenagers singing a popular song, to serious pieces about politics and current events. Many people simply want to express themselves, and have their message reach out to the public. Accordingly, systems and methods which can enable users to locate people, goods, and services in their immediate surroundings are desirable.
The internet allows a user to connect with merchants and friends all around the world. It makes no difference where a person is located geographically. While this makes world wide advertising of goods and services easy, it makes it difficult to browse the immediate surroundings, or a predefined geographic area, for interesting information. The internet can help you find a specialized part dealer on the other side of the globe, but it is not very useful when you want to browse around for a doctor in a crowd of people. Similarly, cell phone technology allows users to make and receive calls all over the world, but does very little to aid users in locating people and information in a user's immediate surroundings. Mobile navigation systems are useful in providing directions, static information about particular locations (e.g. shops and service stations near your current location), and even providing dynamic information such as traffic status on major roadways. However, as of yet there has not yet been a system for individual users to publish or advertise their own content to a localized audience.
Currently, content published on the web is accessible to anyone across the world. There is little or no possibility to publish to a given local geographic area. To some degree, the Internet has become so large that it is now difficult to browse for things that are in your local area.